Yorkton Minor Baseball president Kevin Shirtliffe is extremely happy with the community's 2013 season on the diamonds.
"I think this year stands out as a successful year compared to past seasons," said Shirtliffe. "A bunch of our athletes were recognized by the province as talented ball players with other clubs picking them up for provincials."
Yorkton's most impressive ball club this year was the Peewee 'AA' Cardinals. They made it all of the way to finals in provincials, eventually falling to the Humboldt Dodgers.
"They had a really good year," said Shirtliffe. "We are really proud of what they accomplished this year."
Yorkton's other peewee team, the 'A' Cardinals, also competed in provincials in Martensville. But no different from the 'AA' club, they came up short despite an impressive effort.
A pair of Cardinals were invited to prestigious tournaments by other teams. Joseph Sliva represented the PeeWee Swift Current Indians in Westerns and Tyson Black joined the Saskatoon Blue Jays to compete for the Bantam 'AAA' National Championship.
In addition, six bantam players were selected to play for the Zone 4 Bantam Selects and Tyson Black and Caleb Bymak took part in the Bantam Prospects Tournament in Okotoks, Alta.
"It's impressive to have other teams pick up our players," said the YMB president. "It shows they really stood out during the season."
The one dent in YMB's impressive season is that despite the community's ballpark population of 19,000 people, they haven't fielded a midget team in the last two years.
"That's something we are trying to change," said Shirtliffe. "At that age, they have a lot of things to do, so it's not as easy for them to make time. But in a city of this size, it's very disappointing for us not to have a midget team. We have already started working on getting a team for next spring. That's a goal for us."
